[Ubuntu Touch Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] KMyers:
Hello All,

My goal is to constantly update this thread with the latest questions and answers in regards to the Ubuntu Touch. Expect this thread to grow quickly as more information is revealed.

General Questions

Here is a list of some FAQs

Question : Why are the downloads so slow when I attempt to download the Ubuntu Touch Installer?

Answer : Due to the overwhelming response to users installing the thread, the repos are seeing higher traffic loads then normal. This should balance out in a few days. The Ubuntu team is working to add more capacity to their network as well.

Question : Is Ubuntu Touch stable enough for a Daily Driver?

Answer : No, most of the core "Applications" are non-functional . There is also no support for 3G Data

Question : When is a version stable enough for use as a Daily Driver going to be released?

Answer : According to Mark Shuttleworth, "within a few weeks"

Question : What Devices can Ubuntu Touch Be Ported to?

Answer : As the Ubuntu Touch Preview is simply running in a Cyanogenmod10.1 chroot, theoretically you can port Ubuntu Touch to any device that Cyanogemod 10.1 Supports. Development happened on ICS and eventually moved to JB. Keep in mind that performance may vary. Instructions to port Ubuntu Touch can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Porting

Question : Since this is running in a Cyanogenmod chroot, can it run Native Android Apps?

Answer : No - The Cyanogenmod Fork has been stripped of the Dalvik VM and all other components necessary to run Android Applications. There is a likely possibility that someone will develop a "bluestacks" like emulator to allow android applications to run, but this will most likely not come from the Ubuntu team.

Question : How will the Ubuntu Touch handle Operating System Upgrades?

Answer : For the initial few developer previews, they will be moving to a nightly Jenkins build that developers will need to flash onto their device. Once they get on a stable release cycle, updates will be released via a PPA using the apt protocol. This will likely come with the launch of the Touch Ubuntu Software Center.

Question : Is dual booting possible?

Answer : Yes, thanks to the effort of the people at XDA-Developers, Dual Booting is possible. With this said, this is not something that the Ubuntu Team has any intentions of officially supporting. While Ubuntu seems to encourage community efforts, they stress that they do not want this to become a feature that the end user will expect to see officially supported. (I bet you all wish you got the 32 GB Nexus 7 or Nexus 10 rather then the 16 GB)

Question : Is the Ubuntu Touch UI using X11 or Wayland?

Answer : None of the Above. Ubuntu Touch is using the same Display Manager that is in use by Android, Display Flinger.

Question : Since Ubuntu Touch does not use X11 or Wayland, can it use native applications?

Answer : This is technically possible and appears to be the case in the "Desktop" view.

Question : Can OpenGL Applications work without hooking into the Ubuntu Phone API

Answer : Yes, the application would have full access to the OpenGL Stack.

Question : Are there plans to support the ARMv6 Architecture?

Answer : No, they will only be supporting ARMv7 and above

Question : What Kernel is in Use?

Answer : A modified Android Kernel is in use

Question : Will there be a PC based Device Emulator for developers to test their code?

Answer : This is something that they are working on, no ETAs have been given.

Question : What about CDMA support?

Answer : Fear Not Sprint and Verizon users, it is being worked on. The Ubuntu Team said that the GSM Radio is the global standard and this was simply where they focused most of their attention as all of the developers had GSM devices.

Question : Will Ubuntu be accepting merge requests for the Cyanogen10.1 sub system?

Answer : Yes, this is encouraged.

Question : How is the Battery Life?

Answer : Good but it will get better. They are working on several bugs with the Suspend Functions when the screen turns off. This will cause the battery to drain, even when the device appears to be off.

Question : Where is the Ubuntu chroot kept in relationship to Android?

Answer : The Ubuntu filesystem and all applications are kept in /data/ubuntu . If you use adb to browse this, you will see a familiar filesystem layout that most Linux users are used to

Question : What Command Line Arguments are Available for the "phablet-flash" tool?

Answer : Although this tool is poorly documented (no man page/only 2 flags are published), I did peek into the Python Source Code. Most of this should be useful for porters who want to use the same "phablet-flash" tool for unsupported devices. Here are the flags it accepts:

-d (--device) Target Device to Deploy To

-s (--serial) Pulls the Device Serial Number, used to later run with the -d flag

-b (--bootstrap) Bootstraps the targeted device, only works with Nexus's and unlocked devices with fastboot.

-r (--revision) Chooses a specific build number to download

-l (--latest) Pulls the latest daily build from the server

-p (--base-path) Offline installer, requires that you maintain the same file structure as a -l would. (I assume this was used for the Ubuntu Demo at MWC)

-u (--url) Allows you to specify an alternate URI to download files from.

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Sources : Ubuntu On Air/General Playing with the Software

Ill be adding more to this as more information comes up. Feel Free to PM me if you have any other questions and I will try to track down an answer. I have the Ubuntu release on my Nexus 10 and dont plan to remove it, so I am more then happy to do some poking around for you all who dont have a device.